He World Cup 2026 will go down in history as one of the best of all time. Behind all the controversies that have surrounded the tournament in the previous months and even during it (hydration breaks, denial of visas, etc.), the truth is that the Olympus of football competitions is developing like never before seen in what happens on the pitch. This World Cup will be remembered for the number of unimaginable barriers and records to overcome that have been broken in just two and a half days of competition.
In the most general spectrum, This World Cup has already begun by breaking pre-established molds. For the first time in history, three countries joined forces to host a World Cup event. The United States, Mexico and Canada already surpass the two venues where the 2002 World Cup was held in South Korea and Japan. It is also a historical record that, For the first time, 48 teams were represented in a World Cup, leaving behind the previous 32 format. Despite the proposal to increase to 64 countries, FIFA has already confirmed that the 2030 World Cup will also be made up of the same number of teams than in this edition.
A wide spectrum of countries and a great ‘Cinderella’
Such a constellation of flags has multiplied the scenarios of the drama. The ball will roll in a total of 104 matches. He Aztec Stadiumone of its headquarters, was crowned in the Mexico – South Africa on June 11 as the venue that has hosted a World Cup the most times (three). And it was not in Mexico City, but in Monterrey, where the Tunisia – Japan match was played last Sunday. Or what is the same, the match number one thousand in the history of the World Cups. There it is nothing.
Before this happened, there were other countries making history. The increase in qualification quotas for this World Cup has led to countries absolutely unknown to the general public have been able to show themselves in the greatest of scenarios. And one of them was Curacao. In November 2025, the Caribbean team became the smallest country in history to compete in a World Cup. Its 185,000 inhabitants far surpassed the around 400,000 who were represented with Iceland in Russia 2018. Its coach also made history Dick Advocaat, who at 78 years old became, in his debut against Germany, the oldest coach of history in directing a match in a World Cup.
Curaçao footballers hug after Comenencia’s goal
In what already belongs to purely football aspects, everything indicates that this World Cup will also pass and will be remembered as the highest scoring edition in history. Once the second day of the group stage is over, the number of goals scored amounted to 141. An amount that, inevitably, rose to 161 after the closing of the last day in the first three groups and that will continue to grow until reaching, with complete certainty, 172 targets that were registered in the Qatar World Cup, the most prolific in terms of goals in all of history. And yes, all this without even finishing the first phase of the tournament.
Messi and Cristiano, tireless
Behind the spectacular nature of many of the stadiums and the collective feats, such as that of Cape Verde, This World Cup will be remembered, above all, as the golden and record-breaking twilight of the two deities who have ruled the 21st century: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Both, accompanied on the threshold of legend by Guillermo “Memo” Ochoahave reached the stratosphere by becoming the first footballers in history to compete in six World Cups.
For the Argentine star, the World Cup is being another example that age is just a number. Just Messi needed two games to dethrone Miroslav Klose of two of its most sacred thrones. The man from Rosario became all-time top scorer in the World Cup by reaching 18 goals with his first hat trick in the World Cups against Algeria and his double against Austria. But the records for the Argentine do not end there. Messi has emerged as the player with most games won (18), more matches (28) and more minutes (2,489) played in World Cups. Furthermore, with the victory against the Austrians He equaled Just Fontaine and Jairzinho by scoring in six consecutive World Cup matches.
On the other side of the mirror, Cristiano Ronaldo has not been left in the shadows. On a magical afternoon off Uzbekistan, the Portuguese star challenged biology itself by scoring a double at 41 years and 138 dayssnatching from Messi himself the record of the oldest player to achieve this featin addition to achieving a historic milestone by becoming the only player in history capable of scoring a goal in six different World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026).
His successors, on the prowl
Although it seems that Messi and Cristiano monopolize all the spotlights, The truth is that these two hegemonic footballers are no longer alone. They have the stars of the present and the future on their heels, ready to remove them from their throne. And the first one that appears on the scene is Kylian Mbappé. The Real Madrid forward feels at home in World Cup tournaments and this one is no exception. With his double against Senegal, He surpassed Giroud as the top scorer in the history of the French team. A record that already marks 60 goals after his second double against Iraq. Mbappé, with 16 goals in World Cups, He surpassed his compatriot Just Fontaine as the Frenchman with the most goals in World Cupsalso being the youngest player to reach that figure. Average one goal per game in this competition.
Tied in the scoring table with the Frenchman are Vinícius Júnior and Erling Haaland. The one from Real Madrid, with a more contested match compared to the rest, joined Jairzinho, Romario, Rivaldo and Ronaldo Nazário as the only Brazilian players capable of scoring goals in all three matches of the group stage of a World Cup. For his part, the ‘Norwegian cyborg continues to devour goals. In his World Cup debut, the Manchester City striker already records four targetsthus becoming Norway’s top scorer in the World Cups, surpassing Kjetil Rekdal’s two. In a third step the name of a regular appears on these lists: Harry Kane. The English forward, Golden Boot of the season at Bayern, also wants to be the top scorer of this World Cup. With the double in the debut against Croatia, Kane equals Gary Lineker with 10 goals as the English footballer with the most goals in the World Cupin addition to being along with Beckham, the only one to see the goal in three different editions (2018, 2022 and 2026).
New surprises
In the shadow of all these great names, the World Cup always opens a door for discover new talents not so well known. And in this edition, the names to highlight are three: Deniz Undav, Johan Manzambi and Jonathan David. The German, with three goals and two assists in just 56 minutes, equaled Roger Milla (1990) as the player substitute with the most goal contributions (5) made in the first two games of a World Cup. For his part, the young swiss playerwith three goals and an assist in this group stage, became the youngest substitute (20 years and 247 days) in the history of the World Cups in score a double. Lastly, the canadian forwardalso with three goals (all against Qatar), became the first CONCACAF player to make a hat trick in a World Cup since Bert Patenaude in 1930.
Manzambi celebrates his goal against Canada
A record… impossible?
With the scoring pace of several of the biggest stars of this World Cup, it only remains to be seen if any of them will be able to overcome one of the most difficult records to achieve: Just Fontaine’s 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup. With the new round of 32 incorporated into this World Cup, the truth is that the chances of achieving it seem somewhat higher. We will have to wait.
